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NOTES AND QUERIES. [ii s. i. MAY 28, 1910.
The above titles are as Pegge gives them,
but in 1 and 2 it should surely be "-cheir-"
and not "-choir-" or "-cheer-."
JOHN HODGKIN.
A gold touch piece is in a show-case at the Royal College of Physicians of London. This snows on its obverse the Archangel Michael overcoming the dragon with the Words " Soli Deo gloria." On the reverse is a ship in full sail, With the inscription " Car II. D.G.M.B. Fr. et Hi. Rex." W. F.
I believe that I have a touching piece. It is of silver, much Worn, rather larger than a sixpenny piece. On one side is a ship in full sail on rough Water with legend as well as I can decipher it [letter rubbed out]
EX. D. G. M. B. ET H. B. CB. HP. TVSC. On the
other side is an angel (St. Michael ?) with a spear killing a dragon, with the motto
- ' Soli deo gloria." The piece has a small hole
bored in it, and seems, from the partial manner in which it is Worn out in places, as if it had been attached to a chain and carried with other trinkets.
If P. D. M. cannot see a better specimen without difficulty, I shall be happy to lend him my piece. L. A. W.
Dublin.
[MB. W. B. B. PRIDEAUX also thanked for reply.]
"Ljus" (11 S. i. 209, 273, 375). It is worth notice that the assumption of a form I + s does not get rid of the necessity for assuming also a form I -f- q -f s. The latter is necessary for explaining the Skt. rukshas, shining, quoted by Uhlenbeck in his 'Skt. Etym. Diet.,' p. 250, Pers. rukhsh, a ray of light, and other forms, quoted by Horn in his
- Pers. Etym. Diet.,* p. 136 ; and even for
explaining the A.-S. lixan, to shine, Where the x is due to hs, as in the O.H.G. liehsen, shining. WTiat the Old Irish Us or less has to do With this I have no idea : for it is allied by Celtic scholars with the O. Ir. lainn, shining, and with the Latin splendere from a root splend ; see Walde's ' Lat. Etym. Diet., 1 p. 589. It is much simpler to connect the Icel. ljus with the A.-S. and German forms than to assume a new and unnecessary root. WALTEB W. SKEAT.
SIB ISAAC NEWTON AND KING'S COLLEGE, CAMBBIDGE : DB. ROBEBT UVEDALE (10 S. xii. 229, 294). At the above references mention is made of Sir Isaac Newton's want of success in his candidature for the Provostship of Bang's College, Cambridge, in or about 1689, when of course he was Mr. Newton merely.
Can any of your correspondents tell me
whether in Brewster's ' Life of NeWton, ? or
in any other account of him, notice is taken
of his equally unsuccessful attempt, some
years before, to obtain the Law Fellowship
at Trinity College ?
According to Hutchins (' History of Dorset, 1 iii. 147), his competitor for this Was Mr. Robert Uvedale, who was already one of the Divinity Fellows of that College.
It appears that the Master, Dr. Barrow, decided in favour of the latter, saying that Mr. Uvedale and Mr. Newton being (at that time) equal in literary attainments, he must give the fellowship to Mr. Uvedale as the senior. Mr. Uvedale, however, soon after vacated the fellowship by marriage with one of the granddaughters of Sir Matthew Hale, Lord Chief Justice of the King's Bench.
As Dr. Robert Uvedale (he was made LL.D. at Cambridge in 1682), he was one of -the greatest botanists of his day in Europe, and his hortus siccus Was, after his death, sold for a very large sum to Sir Robert Walpole (see Gent. Mag., vol. Ixix. p. 1186).
Hutchins tells us that he kept a nourishing school at Enfield in Queen Elizabeth's Palace. I believe Dr. Uvedale held a College living at Enfield ; but whether he ever kept a school there as well, or only gave lectures or lessons to the pupils of the Grammar School, as I think it Was called, is perhaps more doubtful.' I have in my possession a receipt of his, dated 3 Aug., 1667 "for 10 11 : : fr3 Xmas to Mid Summer last for teaching the School, n in which he signs himself " R. Udall."
In a note to Hutchins it is stated that Dr. Uvedale resided in the old manor house called Queen Elizabeth's Palace, and, being much attached to the study of botany, had a very curious garden there, and planted among other trees, a cedar of Libanus, which became one of the finest in the kingdom, measuring (in October, 1793) 12 feet in girth.
I understand that there is a school at Enfield in the same spot still, but in what condition the trees or the garden are now I know not. J. S. UDAL, F.S.A.
Antigua, W.I.
"E" MUTE IN ENGLISH (11 S. i. 389). The history of the mute e in English is a very long story. Its present function is virtually accidental and unoriginal, and survives from a time When every final -e Was definitely pronounced as a distinct syllable, as in modern German and Dutch. The spelling
